The weather in March 2023 was cooler than usual, and much wetter and snowier than average. The month ended up as the 7th wettest and 9th snowiest on record.

A snowstorm brought 3 inches of snowfall on the night of Mar 1st into the 2nd, but it all melted during in the afternoon. The rest of the first half of the month had near average readings for the most part with almost no precipitation. Highs were in the mid 40s to upper 50s with lows in the 20s to low 30s. The last half of the month had much colder and wetter weather, with a big snowstorm of around 8-9 inches on the 16th to 18th. However, it also pretty much had all melted by the afternoon of the 19th. Another wet period with rain and snow occurred on the 20th to the 24th. Highs from the 16th to the 28th were mainly in the mid 30s and 40s, with lows in the teens and 20s. The last 3 days of the month had much warmer but windy weather as highs edged into the low 60s.

The warmest high was 62 on the 30th, while the coldest low was 8 on the 28th. A record cold high temperature was set on the 17th with a high of just 31 degrees. Also, the precipitation and snowfall amounts on Mar 16th were records for that date, 0.98 inches and 8.1 inches.

Winds were a little above average for the month, with 9 days having gusts of 35 mph or higher. The windiest days were the 5th, 11th, 22nd, 30th and 31st, with the highest gust of 51 mph occurring on the 30th around 425 PM.

Here are the actual numbers for the month…

Average Temp . . . . 36.6 degrees, -1.6 degrees below average

Average High . . . . . 44.3 degrees, -4.6 degrees below average

Average Low . . . . . 25.0 degrees, +1.5 degrees above average

Total precip . . . . . . 1.84 inches, +0.86 inches above average

Total snowfall . . . . . 14.8 inches, +8.4 inches above average

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The weather in February 2023 was a slightly cooler than usual, but wetter and snowier than average.

The first half of the month had above average readings for the most part with a few weak weather systems moving through with little or no precipitation. Highs were in the 40s to mid 50s with lows 5 to 20. The third week of the month was much colder and snowier with highs in the 30s to low 40s and lows near zero to 15 above. About 5 inches of snow fell on the 13th to 15th. The last week was near average with highs in the upper 30s to near 50 and lows 15 to 25, along with 2 more days of snowfall on the 19th and 22nd.

The warmest high was 54 on the 11th, while the coldest low was -4 on the 16th. No daily temperature records were set.

Winds were average for the month, with only a few days – Feb 14th, 22nd & 26th – where it was actually windy. The highest gust of 46 mph occurred on the 26th around 120 PM.

Here are the actual numbers for the month…

Average Temp . . . . 30.5 degrees, -0.6 degrees below average

Average High . . . . . 44.0 degrees, -1.0 degrees below average

Average Low . . . . . 16.9 degrees, -0.3 degrees below average

Total precip . . . . . . 1.00 inches, +0.31 inches above average

Total snowfall . . . . . 9.7 inches, +2.5 inches above average

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The year 2022 in Taos weatherwise averaged a little warmer than usual, and much wetter than average. The year started off wetter and snowier that usual, especially in Feb and Mar. Then things dried out and warmed up for Apr and May.

The biggest weather story of the year was the unusually wet monsoon season from about the middle of Jun through Jul and Aug. Total rainfall for the 3 summer months totaled 9.39 inches, which was the second highest amount since records began around 1900 (first wettest was in 1921 with 9.67 inches).

The other weather feature of the year was the above average low temperatures from Apr through Sep. That period had the highest average low temperature since records started here in the Taos area. Much of it had to do with the above average amount of moisture in the air during the summer monsoon, which kept overnight temperatures from cooling off to near average levels.

For the year, the precipitation total was 17.21 inches, which is the 8th wettest on record. The annual temperature averaged out to 48.2 degrees, or about 1.1 degrees above average.

Below is the yearly summary by month, with departures from the long term (1902-2019) average in the Dep column. Also included are the monthly/seasonal records set during the year, showing only those values that ended up in the top 12 positions.

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